1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a toner.
2. Related Art
Generally, an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a copier, or a facsimile employing electrophotography forms an image formed from a toner on a printing medium such as paper by a series of image forming processes of a charging process, an exposure process, a development process, a transfer process, and a fixing process.
Such an image forming apparatus is provided with a development device having a development roller supporting a toner. The development apparatus is used in a state in which the development roller is opposed to a photosensitive drum supporting an electrostatic latent image, and the latent image on the photosensitive drum is made visible (developed) as a toner image by applying a toner to the photosensitive drum from the development roller.
As a method of producing a toner, a crushing method or a polymerization method is used (e.g., see JP-A-2009-058844).
Generally, it is considered that toner particles are substantially circular for the purpose of reducing a difference of charging properties among particles. However, when a degree of circularity is too high, the toner particles turn between a photoreceptor and a cleaning blade and enter a gap when the toner remaining on a photoreceptor is removed by the cleaning blade, and thus it is difficult to clean the toner. There is a method of applying mechanical force after granulation to reduce the degree of circularity degree of the toner particles to obtain toner particles with a proper degree of circularity. However, when such a method is used, accidental cohesion among particles, cracking of particles, and the like may easily occur.